Cort-K News

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 2, 2017 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday expanded approval for the anti-cancer drug Imbruvica (ibrutinib) to include adults with chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD). cGVHD is a deadly condition that affects up to 70 percent of people who receive a stem cell transplant to treat cancers of the blood or bone marrow, the FDA said in a news release. The condition occurs when the transplanted cells attack healthy cells in a patient's tissues. "This approval highlights how a known treatment for cancer is finding a new use in treating a serious and life-threatening condition that may occur in patients with blood cancer who receive a stem cell transplant," said Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence. Use of Imbruvica to treat cGVHD was studied in a clinical trial of 42 people whose symptoms lingered despite standard ... Read more

THURSDAY, June 29, 2017 – Researchers say they've come closer to pinpointing genes linked with inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. For the study, the investigators examined the genomes of nearly 68,000 people. Of the regions of the genome associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), 18 could be traced to a single genetic variant with more than 95 percent certainty. "We have taken the biggest ever data set for IBD and applied careful statistics to narrow down to the individual genetic variants involved," said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Barrett, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom. "Now we have a clearer picture of which genes do and do not play a role in the disease. We are zooming in on the genetic culprits of IBD," he said in an institute news release. The findings could lead to improved effectiveness of current ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 7, 2016 – People with chronic eye inflammation known as uveitis may be able to keep the condition at bay with the immune-suppressing drug Humira (adalimumab), a new study finds. "Humira doesn't cure uveitis, but it does cause it to become quiet," said lead researcher Dr. Glenn Jaffe. He's a professor of ophthalmology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C., and a consultant for Humira's maker, AbbVie. "The hope is while the disease is in a quiet state, the disease activity just burns itself out – but it can also come back," he said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Humira for the treatment of uveitis in June. The results of the study were published Sept. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was funded by AbbVie. Uveitis – a term used to describe a group of inflammatory diseases inside the eye – can cause loss of vision and ... Read more

THURSDAY, June 9, 2016 – People who use powerful drugs called systemic glucocorticoids are at higher risk for life-threatening staph blood infections, a new study finds. The findings are "a reminder for clinicians to weigh carefully the elevated risk against the potential beneficial effect of glucocorticoid therapy," said study lead author Dr. Jesper Smit, of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. "This is especially pertinent in patients who are already vulnerable to infection," he added. Glucocorticoids – a form of steroids – are powerful immunosuppressive drugs used to treat a variety of medical conditions that involve inflammation. The drugs are "given by mouth or by injection, are anti-inflammatory, and can suppress the immune system," explained one U.S. expert, Dr. Gerald Bernstein. "Usually, short-term use in otherwise healthy people does not cause a problem, but long term ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, March 2, 2016 – Patients who've received a steroid injection for hip pain should wait at least three months before having hip replacement surgery, a new study suggests. "The risk of developing an infection after surgery increased significantly in patients who had a hip replacement within three months of receiving a steroid injection," study author Dr. William Schairer, from the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, said in a hospital news release. "However, in patients who had a steroid injection and then waited three months or longer to have the surgery, there was no increased risk at all." Steroid injections are widely used to ease pain and inflammation associated with arthritis. These injections can weaken the immune system, which could increase infection risk, the researchers explained. "Hip replacement is a common and safe procedure that relieves pain and ... Read more

TUESDAY, Nov. 10, 2015 – Millions of aging Americans are plagued by arthritic knees, and two new studies offer insight into what might – or might not – help curb the condition. Both studies were presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology's annual meeting in San Francisco. One study found that a popular therapy, steroid drug injections, do nothing to slow progression of osteoarthritis in the knee. This type of treatment is common, but has never been specifically tested, and there are concerns about its safety, according to a team led by Dr. Tim McAlindon, chief of rheumatology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. His team tracked outcomes for 140 people – mainly overweight white women – with knee arthritis who averaged 58 years of age. The patients received either injections of the steroid triamcinolone hexacetonide, or placebo injections of saline, every three months ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14, 2015 – Current therapies for children with Crohn's disease don't fully restore healthy bacteria and fungi populations in their digestive systems, a new study shows. These findings suggest that treatments don't have to bring bacteria and other microbe levels back to normal levels in the gut to be useful. This knowledge could lead to new approaches for diagnosing and treating inflammatory bowel disease, according to the Oct. 14 study in the journal Cell Host & Microbe. "We show that microbes in the gut respond to treatment of inflammatory bowel disease in a much more complex way than has been previously appreciated," co-principal investigator Gary Wu, from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said in a journal news release. "The results of our study provide information that could be used to track or predict disease, as well as new diet-based therapeutic ... Read more

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 – Steroid injections for lower back pain may provide some relief for certain patients, but any benefits are temporary, a new study finds. Lower back pain related to herniated disk (when intervertebral disks become compressed and bulge) and, to a lesser degree, spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal), is often treated with epidural steroid injections, the researchers said. But after reviewing 38 previously published studies, the researchers found no strong evidence to support their use for these conditions. "These injections may not be as effective as perceived, and decisions should be based on an informed discussion of risks, benefits, and potential options, including surgery, medications and nonpharmacological options like exercise therapy," said lead researcher Dr. Roger Chou, a professor of medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University. Chou said ... Read more

MONDAY, Aug. 10, 2015 – Steroid treatment may hasten pneumonia patients' recovery and cut their risk of complications, a new review suggests. The findings "should lead to an important change in treatment for pneumonia," lead author Dr. Reed Siemieniuk, a physician and graduate student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, said in a university news release. "Corticosteroids are inexpensive and readily available around the world. Millions of patients will benefit from this new evidence," he said. But one expert said a bit more research may be needed first. "With such modest – though measurable – effects of treatment, a large multi-center randomized clinical trial," would still be necessary to confirm the new findings and "perhaps justify a change in the standard of care," said Dr. Bruce Polsky. He is chair of the department of medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, ... Read more

TUESDAY, May 19, 2015 – Doctors often prescribe steroid pills to ease the discomfort of sciatica – back and leg pain usually caused by a herniated disk in the lower back. But a new study finds steroids are no more effective than a placebo pill for the pain and provide only modest improvement in function. Sciatica affects about one in 10 people in their lifetime, the researchers said. For this study, 269 people with sciatica were randomly assigned to take an oral steroid (prednisone) or a placebo (a dummy medication) for 15 days. The participants were followed for up to a year. "When we compared the prednisone to placebo, there was a modest improvement in function," said study researcher Dr. Harley Goldberg, director of spine care services at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center in California. People reported they could go about their daily activities somewhat better than before. ... Read more

MONDAY, May 11, 2015 – Certain treatments may increase a childhood cancer survivor's risk of obesity later in life, a new study says. "The ability to identify patients at increased risk may guide selection of therapeutic protocols that will maximize treatment outcomes while simultaneously minimizing the risk of long-term complications among children diagnosed with cancer," said study co-leader Kirsten Ness, of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. The researchers looked at nearly 2,000 people who'd been diagnosed with childhood cancer at least 10 years earlier. They found that almost half who underwent cranial radiation were obese. This compared with just over 29 percent of those who did not receive that type of treatment. Cranial radiation is used to prevent or delay the spread of cancer to the brain. The risk of obesity among survivors treated with cranial radiation was ... Read more

TUESDAY, Nov. 25, 2014 – An expert advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will decide Tuesday whether to recommend that doctors stop giving steroid injections for back pain. These shots are commonly used to treat back pain, but they are not approved for this use and whether the risks outweigh the benefits is a matter of debate. According to the FDA, serious but rare side effects with these shots can include death, spinal cord blockage, paralysis, blindness, stroke, seizures, nerve injury and brain swelling. And experts are divided on whether steroid shots actually ease back pain. A study published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who have lower back pain caused by spinal stenosis – a common condition among those over the age of 60 in which the open space in the spinal canal narrows from inflammation – are unlikely to get ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 13, 2014 – Only half of eligible women in low- and middle-income countries at risk for preterm birth receive an inexpensive drug that seems to help prevent complications and deaths in premature infants, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed the use of prenatal corticosteroid injections in more than 300,000 births in 29 countries, and found that only 52 percent of women eligible to receive the simple and effective treatment actually get it. This is despite the fact that corticosteroids given before birth have been shown to significantly lower preterm infants' risk of death, breathing problems, bleeding in the brain, and long-term complications such as cerebral palsy and poor motor skills, the researchers said. Rates of steroids given before birth ranges from 16 percent to 20 percent of eligible women in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal and Niger to 88 ... Read more

TUESDAY, Aug. 5, 2014 – For relief of shoulder pain, physical therapy and steroid shots provide similar results, a new study finds. Researchers compared the two nonsurgical approaches in a group of 100-plus adults suffering from shoulder pain caused by rotator cuff problems, tendinitis or bursitis. "Whether you had a steroid injection or physical therapy, the improvement in each group was the same," said lead researcher Daniel Rhon, from the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. "It was also a rather large improvement, about 50 percent, and this improvement was maintained for at least one year," he said. But the group that received injections used more health care services and had significantly more shoulder-related doctor visits during the year of the study, Rhon said. "Additional visits to your primary care provider may indicate that you ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, July 2, 2014 – People who have lower back pain caused by spinal stenosis – a condition that narrows the open space in the spinal canal – are unlikely to get relief from steroid shots, a new study finds. "Steroid injections are a common treatment for spinal stenosis, and we were surprised by the finding," said lead author Dr. Janna Friedly, an assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. "These steroid injections aren't helpful," she said. "There is no added benefit to the steroid itself, so if people are considering these injections, I would recommend that they consider an alternative." Spinal stenosis causes pain by putting pressure on the spinal nerves. The condition is common in men and women over 60, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Spinal stenosis is often treated with injections of local ... Read more